It’s finally warm enough to bring my plants off the porch, outside and to get them into containers. You saw one of them last Wednesday for “Wordless Wednesday.”
Here are some of the others.
This is an herb container. You may remember the Spanish Lavender from an earlier post. I have surrounded it with rosemary, thyme, chives (already starting to flower) and parsley.
You can see that I am already starting my “edibles” wall. It has to be this way since my vegetable garden soil is still “poisoned” from last year’s unfortunate incident with the erring landscape company. I may find that I like everything so close to the kitchen that I never go back to the raised beds–who knows?
As for the Spoiler, he’s already said that he likes the flowers in the raised bed.
I had a container garden lecture on Tuesday so I planted up some containers that I might not ordinarily do. This one is a “riff” on the geranium, vinca, dracena spike combo, but done with houseplants so the whole thing can be brought in for the winter if you choose.
And since not everyone loves the look of all succulents (and we don’t live in Arizona or the desert southwest, so really, why do we insist on planting them everywhere?) this is my take on a dry container that will go a long time without water. (Actually I do love the look of succulents–but I keep them as house plants instead!)
Finally, for those of you that were with me last year, you may remember that I did this combo last summer. The two colors of million bells fill in nicely under the croton and blend together to form an orange-y yellow carper over the top of the whole pot. It’s very nice. It the end of the season, I compost the million bells, fill in those spots with fresh soil and return the croton to a sunny window indoors.
So that’s some fun with containers at my house!
Gardendaze 
Dracaenas seem to be popular to some extent everywhere. Do they live outside? Modern garden cultivars are more popular here. They stay compact and provide nice foliage. the straight species is not so easy to find, but it gets too big and can get ugly anyway. There used to be many of them at the Winchester House.
They won’t live outside through our winters–that’s why people over- winter them as house plants (although no one really ever bothers doing it with this plain green one. The tri-color or burgundy ones, which are often harder to find this time of year, are the ones that get saved. I have a 4 year old burgundy one that I just keep moving in and out).
They’re good air cleaning plants–that’s why I save mine. Anything to help with indoor air quality in the winter is always welcome.
Karla